Preface: The context of this Fanfiction is based on the anime, not the manga.

Warning: This contains spoilers regarding Episode Nine. Please do not read any further if you do not wish to be spoiled.

After a long and fun last day together that felt short for the both of them, both Kouta and Lucy were standing at the top of stairs light up by a streetlight that led down into the streets that were dimly lit from being rather far from the other lights.

It was a long period of silence, although it felt deafening to the both of them. Neither of them knew what to say to each other as it was almost certainly their last day together for an extremely long time.

Kouta didn't want to say goodbye to his fast and close friend.

Lucy didn't want to go for an entire year without the one thing that gave her joy and kindness in her very cursed and damned life.

Both had selfish wishes, but rightfully so.

Feeling pressured to say something but unsure of how to say goodbye, Kouta started to converse using his instinct to come up with the words to say goodbye to his best friend, "Well..."

"Yeah?" Lucy said looking down at his feet.

"We're coming back next year. I'll see you again," Kouta said to her.

"Hey, Kouta?" She called softly and slowly as she looked up to make contact with his face.

"What is it?" Kouta asked curiously.

The girl's face turned slightly red as she started to ask the question she was dying for to be answered, "That cousin you were taking to the festival tomorrow; did you say it was a boy or was it a girl?"

Kouta lightly gasped. He had hoped secretly that this question wouldn't come from her, but it did. He contemplated for a few seconds how he should answer her. The boy looked down, not wanting to make her envious and jealous from the truth.

However at the same time, it wouldn't feel right for him to lie to her and have her possibly leave from his life in a rage from possibly finding out that he was lying, and he was told that a longer the lie goes on, the harder it comes back to bite you when you're exposed.

It was difficult. Kouta had to choose. He thought to himself that maybe since his cousin was ONLY his cousin, she wouldn't take it the wrong way and their close bond would remain intact.

"Wh-What's taking him so long...? I-Is his cousin r-really a girl?"

She tried to calm the heart that was beating at an accelerated rate. Her mind was racing. Lucy thought that if her cousin was a boy, she may have a chance to tell him how she's feeling.

"My..." Kouta started.

"Yes?"

A brief pause before... "My cousin's a girl."

"No...!"

His answer, that answer that she feared and dreaded turned out to be true. His cousin was a girl. The girl's eyes went nearly a mile wide, and time felt frozen around her.

"I told you..." Her inner consciousness said. "I told you before. Did I not tell you before?"

"I...I..."

"You're broken...aren't you?"

"I...This... This isn't possible..."

"It's very possible. In fact, you now know it's true. Now that you know the truth that you have been dreading, what will you do? Will you save yourself the trouble and kill him now? Or would you rather suffer from watching her be with him in envy at that festival?"

"Hey! Hey! You! Snap out of it!" Kouta's voice echoed in her seemingly hollow mind.

Lucy came to realise that she had been crying and standing stock still while Kouta was shaking her back to reality. Lucy stared at his face that had the expression of worriment and concern.

She stared blankly at him while the last of her tears rolled down her face. "Y-You..."

"Huh?"

Suddenly, she pushed him away and started running down the stairs and into the streets. Kouta fell down on his bottom from that unexpected push. Kouta became really concerned for his friend, and started to pursue her.

"H-Hey! Wait!" He called out as he started to run after her.

Lucy, meanwhile, was running down the street sobbing out loud. She felt betrayed, she felt helplessly broken, and she felt like she could kill him but was desperately trying to suppress that killer's instinct from taking over. She heard his voice behind him.

"Wait a minute! What's the matter?!" The boy called out to her as he was lagging a few feet behind Lucy while giving chase.

"Shut up! You don't care!" Lucy said to Kouta through her sobs as she tried to run faster to put greater distance between them.

Kouta tried to muster up more energy to match her speed, "I do care! That's why I'm going after you! Come on! Let's talk! You've been acting weird today, too!"

"Poor you..." The voice inside of Lucy taunted. "You're trying so desperately to suppress your desire to kill him. Right now you're thinking that if you can't have him, nobody can. However, it seems as though he really cares about you if he's chasing after. Poor thing is practically asking for his death. What will you do?"

"I can't... Don't come any closer, Kouta... I might-Ah!"

Suddenly, Lucy felt her right foot give out underneath her, and crashed to the ground with her forward momentum carrying her.

"Oh no..." She felt herself panicking at this point. She wanted to escape and she did not want to face Kouta in her current state of mind, but now she's put in this situation that she can't run anymore because of a lame right foot from tripping.

"Hey! Hey!" Kouta yelled out, his footsteps sounding closer.

She squeezed her eyes shut. "Go away! Go away right now before I kill you! Please..."

A moment later, she felt him cradling her in his arms. Her face became red again, the deep affection she was feeling for him starting to remerge. She opened her eyes to see Kouta looking very concerned for her.

"Hey, are you alright? Is your right foot okay? Come on, talk to me..."

"This will be the moment of truth for you... What will you do?"

She truly wanted to kill him to spare herself from the pain of losing him for an entire year. Lucy didn't want to go back to facing hell all by herself and elude the people hunting her down. However, her affections for him were the only thing holding her back from doing so.

"I...I..." Having enough of the conflict, she started crying her eyes out like a little baby.

There was nothing she could do to hide the tears. This boy was the only one who got to know her as a friend and treat her as an actual human being. She wanted to be with him so badly, yet the fact that he was going to be gone after tomorrow and couldn't be with her because of a promise he made...

Wait... A promise...? Her mind suddenly drifted back to when they were on the bus.

"I'm really sorry. If I hadn't made that promise..."

If he hadn't made that promise... Did that mean that he didn't want to go with his cousin?

Lucy didn't know what she was thinking at this point, but she wanted to at least give Kouta a chance to explain himself, but she thought she was going to be hurt more by whatever else might come out of his mouth. Again, him being practically the only exception, Lucy thought she should at least hear him out.

The little girl sniveled for a bit in Kouta's arms and sat up on the ground next to him, with her tears and sobbing subsided.

"Are you okay now?" Kouta asked, with a bit of fear in his voice.

"Y-Yeah..." Lucy said with quivers in her voice.

A few moments of silence passed. The two of them were sitting very close to one another.

Slowly, Kouta turned his head towards Lucy as he asked, "Are you okay, now?"

"Alright... I'm ready to talk, Kouta..." Lucy said, finally composed herself.

Kouta took a deep breath before starting to talk, "I'm really sorry about all this. Really, I would have loved to invite you to the festival on the last day I could be here, but I made that promised to my cousin before I met you."

Lucy only nodded, signaling to the boy to just continue.

Kouta sighed before continuing, "I really wanted to say that my cousin is a boy instead, but if I did, I thought that maybe something bad would have happened if you found out that I was lying."

Lucy gasped out loud, once again, triggering the voice inside of her to speak.

"See? He was planning to deceive you all along... Need any more reason to kill him, now?"

But fortunately, Kouta immediately followed his statement. "But... I was thinking of doing it so that you wouldn't somehow feel terrible about me going to the festival with another girl... Because I..."

Lucy's eyes started to widen again as she turned to look at him, who was still looking straight ahead in the distance. "Y-Yes, Kouta...?" She was having a glimmer of hope in her heart that maybe he reciprocates how she feels about him.

Kouta looked the other way while scratching his head, "I...really like you, um..." He gasped loudly from making a basic mistake, "Oh wow. I can't believe this, but I never got to know your name, and I somehow forgot to keep asking."

Lucy blushed and gave a gasp comparable to a schoolgirl being acknowledged by her crush, "M-My name?"

"Yeah," He turned back to face her, "So, what's your name?"

"I-I'm..." Lucy felt uncomfortable, the heated feeling in her cheeks not going down, "I'm...Lucy, Kouta..."

Kouta smiled at Lucy, "Ah. So, Lucy, I really like you and I wish that somehow I could take you to the festival instead of my cousin."

Once again, Lucy gave a light gasp as she looked directly into his eyes, "Really, Kouta?" She asked with a feeling or rising hope in her voice.

Kouta nodded at her, "Yeah... Also, I came here to be with you to get away from my sister, too. She also doesn't know about you."

Lucy tilted her head curiously at him, "You have a sister? You never told me that, either, Kouta."

Kouta scratched the back of his head, "Yeah. The thing about my sister...she's kinda annoying."

Lucy blinked a few times at him. Deep inside, she liked more where this was going. She started to feel happy, although guilt-ridden as well. "Annoying?"

He rolled his eyes from thinking about his sister, "Yeah, I really mean it. For whatever reason, she practically gets mad at anyone who tries talking to me, especially girls. It keeps me from having friends of my own. You're the first real friend that I had, and if she found out you were a girl...let's just say we wouldn't be friends for very long after that because of her." Kouta took a deep breath before also saying to Lucy, "I...really didn't want to lose you, Lucy. You're my best friend."

Lucy gasped at him for what must have been the fifteenth time. She realised that he went through so much just to befriend her in addition for rebelling against his father's wishes to stay at home. In addition, he also was inclined to lie to her to not hurt her feelings. That must have meant that she was also important to him just as he was important to her.

"K-Kouta..." She murmured with her voice breaking.

"Yes, Lucy-Whoa!"

Kouta was taken aback by the sudden embrace that Lucy gave him. He was shocked for a few moments, but feeling her warmth and how tight she was clinging to him, he gently returned her hug. The two of them stayed like this for a long sixty seconds. It would be difficult for them to see each other tomorrow for the last time until next year because of a hasty promise Kouta made to his cousin.

For Lucy, this meant everything to her, this reassurance that Kouta really does think of her as someone close to him and someone important to him.

"Um, Lucy?" Kouta asked with a constricting feeling in his voice. "I...can't breathe. You're holding too tight."

Lucy's eyes shot wide as she quickly backed away from him, "Ah! I-I'm sorry. I... I'm really going to miss you when you're gone, Kouta..."

Kouta looked down. "Y-Yeah... Me too... But hey, I'll be here next year. Maybe I can make things work better by then. Maybe by then the murders would have stopped completely, and I can come visit you whenever I can!"

It's a tragic irony that wouldn't be if Lucy herself wasn't the cause of the mass murders that have been taking place. They say ignorance is bliss, and probably for now, Kouta shouldn't know...

But Lucy decided that he must know something the last day so that she wouldn't have to wait an entire year before seeing him again to have another opportunity.

"Kouta, I... I want to tell you something tomorrow."

"But Lucy, I'm going to be with my cousin tomorrow. How are you going to-"

"Just listen to me, Kouta. I need to tell you something tomorrow. I'll see you off at the station, alright? Can you please let me tell you by then? I don't feel ready right now to say it..."

Kouta was curious, but since Lucy was adamant in telling him on the last day, he thought it's probably best to let Lucy have her wish, "Are you sure you can make it by then, Lucy?"

Lucy nodded while looking right into his eyes, "Yes. I'll make sure I'll be there, no doubt about it."

"But the others haven't met you. They only know I have a friend here, and don't know who you really are."

"I don't care." Lucy said confidently, "I want to tell you it by then so that you'll have something to remember me by until we meet again next year."

After a few seconds, Kouta nodded at her, "Okay, Lucy. I'll meet you at the station. ...I promise."

A small smile formed on Lucy's lips. "Thank you, Kouta."

Author's Note

I made sure that I was getting the personalities just right by watching Episode Nine of Elfen Lied again, as well as looking up the Wiki. I also saw that during that entire episode, Kouta somehow never learned of Lucy's name.

Will I make another Elfen Lied Fanfiction? Probably not. This was the only headcanon that I had for a long time before finally deciding to write it down.

If I somehow got anything wrong in this, I apologise, but know that any criticism in regards to contextual accuracy will be very much moot because this'll be most likely be my only Fanfiction in this section, for those of you who don't know or follow me.

Update: 1/16/16

I have gotten several reviews telling me about the name thing. Yes, I know that, already. Please check to see if other people have pointed it out first before you say something.

Let me explain it: It's in the ANIME universe, where the name "Kaede" has never appeared nor heard. She was only really called Lucy aside from Nyu. That's it. If it was said even once in the anime, I'd use it but it was never used so I didn't use the name "Kaede". I make it a point to stay as faithful to the original source material as possible.

I sincerely hope this puts the name issue to rest because it's getting tiring for me at this point. Thank you for your feedback on other aspects, though.